Original:
My game utilizes rope, a mirror frame, a plastic bag, and snow. Rope is tied to the corners of the mirror so that two people can hold two one piece of rope per hand. A plastic bag is attached to the frame so that objects that pass through the frame are caught in the bag. The players must catch snowballs thrown by another player, by pulling on the ropes and moving the frame around.
Final:
My game now utilizes similar objects, but the plastic bag is now light canvas and the snow has been replaced with socks. I wanted to test the game outside, but three factors limited me to not being able to do that.
1. The snow would not pack into decent snowballs, which made testing with them impossible.
2. The snow was about a foot deeper than I had imagined it would be and would not allow for the movement that I wanted players to have.
3. My testers were massive pansies and didn’t want to be cold.
After playtesting in class, I have also decided to include blindfolding the thrower. This mechanic adds a lot of fun to the game because it makes the players holding the basket work together better. Since throws can go anywhere, the two basket players need to be able to think quickly and help each other out in order to make any catches.
Overall, I am happy with my end result. Watching my friends play was really enjoyable. I could tell that toward the end, once they got the hang of moving the basket, they really liked playing. In the last included test session, the final catch was met with a happy celebration and I loved seeing that. There was a lot of blame when a throw was missed, but nobody took credit when a catch was made and I found that very interesting. Failure was somebody’s fault, but success was achieved together. I wanted to build my game on a deep meaning, but could not come up with one, but studying the test sessions helped me see that I may have accidentally stumbled upon something with some depth.
Artist Statement:
I came up with this idea by tying rope around the frame in a spider web like style with the intent of using the “web” to catch or block thrown object. I then got the idea of having two people having to work well together to win the game and thought to tie the ropes so that it was like both players were controlling one very simple puppet
I started trying to come up with a concept that helped convey a message. I liked the idea of Ono’s white chess board and wanted my game to make a statement. I’m still slightly upset that I don’t feel like I achieved that task. I did; however, also want to implement our discussions of Dada from class and what we learned about the movement. I’m proud of my method for finding my game mechanic because it stemmed from a naive, playful testing session. I grabbed three items in my room and let myself play with them in odd ways. I eventually discovered the form of my game from this session and I enjoyed the process I used.